The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld

This harrowing tale of early twentieth century New York reveals the true stories of an immigrant underworld, a secret vice squad, and the rise of organized crime.

In the early 1900s, prior to World War I, New York City was a vortex of vice and corruption. On the Lower East Side, then the most crowded ghetto on earth, Eastern European Jews formed a dense web of crime syndicates. Gangs of horse poisoners and casino owners, pimps and prostitutes, thieves and thugs, jockeyed for dominance while their family members and neighbors toiled in the unregulated garment industry.

But when the notorious murder of a gambler attracted global attention, a coterie of affluent German-Jewish uptowners decided to take matters into their own hands. Worried about the anti-immigration lobby and the uncertain future of Jewish Americans, the uptowners marshalled a strictly off-the-books vice squad led by an ambitious young reformer.

The squad, known as the Incorruptibles, took the fight to the heart of crime in the city, waging war on the sin they saw as threatening the future of their community. Their efforts, however, led to unforeseen consequences in the form of a new mobster class who realized, in the country's burgeoning reform efforts, unprecedented opportunities to amass power.

In this mesmerizing and atmospheric account, drawn from never-before-seen sources and peopled with unforgettable characters, Dan Slater tells an epic and often brutal saga of crime and redemption, exhuming a buried history that shaped our modern world.

Author: Dan Slater
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 07/16/2024
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.29w x 1.46d
ISBN: 9780316427715


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 06/01/2024 pg. 5
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2024

About the Author
A graduate of Colgate University, New York Film Academy, and Brooklyn Law School, Dan Slater has written for more than a dozen publications, including the Wall
Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, GQ, and the New Yorker. His last book, Wolf Boys, which the New York Times called "unforgettable" and the Chicago Public Library named a best book of the year, is being adapted for a TV series by 101 Studios and director Antoine Fuqua. His story about a rabbinic gang is in development at Paramount TV and George Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures. Raised in Minnesota, Dan lives in New England with his wife and their two sons.